September 2022 - 32

Schireson shines at NABC
JUNIOR News
Olivia Schireson of Stanford
CA had an outstanding
run at the Providence NABC.
Schireson, who is 17 years old,
played in the Freeman Mixed
Board-a-Match Teams and
came in second. " What a joy
she was to partner, " said team
captain John McAllister. " Olivia
played all the boards, half with
me and half with Michael Xu,
who was my partner for the Life
Master Pairs. Olivia agreed
to play our 20 pages of system
notes, learning them the night
before. We laughed off our few
bad results and became fast friends. "
In addition to that spectacular recompete
aggressively. I bid 2',
showing the majors, and partner
comes in with 3NT! Wait, who
opened 1NT? North led the 3
and partner's hand is:
A 8 7 kQ 3 l2 'A K J 10 6 5 3.
It goes jack, king, ace. Now,
Olivia Schireson (far right) and her BAM teammates
(from left): Alexander Wernle, John McAllister, Jovanka
Smederevac and Michael Xu.
sult, Schireson won the second bracket
of the Friday Bracketed Round
Robin Teams, had a very respectable
showing in the Sunday Top-Flight
Swiss (an event full of world-class
players) and was second in the Fast
Open Pairs on the last day. She won
132.92 masterpoints, 89.09 of them
Platinum. " The 80 platinum points
qualified her for the Platinum Pairs,
which she was particularly excited
about, and me too, " said McAllister.
" She's not yet a Life Master! "
Win, lose or draw
By Olivia Schireson
Sometimes, a hand comes up at the
bridge table that has you thinking,
" Whose notrump is this, anyway? "
This happened to me twice in the two
qualifying sessions of the Freeman
Mixed Board-a-Match Teams. In the
morning session, I held:
J kQ J 5 4 3 lK 3 'K 10 8 4 2.
The auction starts with Pass-2l
to me. Partner is a passed hand, so
it is unlikely we will make anything
juicy. I pass and the auction proceeds:
2NT (artificial force)-Pass-3k (ar32
| Bridge Bulletin | September 2022
tificial, showing a decent hand). With
the stiff J, partner rates to lead
a spade. That could be a disaster at
BAM, where every trick matters, so I
threw in an aggressive lead-directing
double of 3k. LHO bid 3NT, ending
the auction. Partner dutifully led the
k8 and dummy comes down with:
9 7
k10 6
lA Q 9 8 7 5
'Q J 7
I stuck in the kJ, declarer won
with the ace and played a low diamond
to the queen. I won with the
king and shifted to the J. Declarer
thought for a moment and played the
king. Partner took the ace and played
the Q. When I showed out, declarer
said, " Oh, $#*t. " Partner proceeded
to table five more spades and declarer
goes down four for plus 400. Partner
held A Q 10 6 5 3 2!
In the evening session, I held:
J 10 9 6 kK 10 9 8 5 lK 6 3 '4.
The auction starts with 1NT (15-
17) on my left, passed around to me.
At favorable vulnerability (again with
a singleton, so I'm thinking partner
is likely to lead that suit), I wanted to
partner plays another spade,
hoping to find an entry to take
the club finesse. Luckily for us,
North ducked. Partner took the
winning club finesse and ran his
clubs. The defense pitched carefully
to only let him make three
for plus 400.
Whose notrump is this, anyway?
From couch to coach
In July, a " Junior Battle " practice
match was held on RealBridge.
Two USBF Junior teams captained
by James Holzhauer (playing with
Ethan Wood, Reese Koppel and Luke
Williams) and Zach Grossack (playing
with Michael Xu, Jake Williams
and William Scott), played 15 boards
with commentary for kibitzers
provided by Larry Cohen and George
Jacobs.
Dave Caprera, who actively supports
Junior bridge (the proceeds of
his book, " Sleeping on the Couch, "
all go to the USBF Junior program),
provided postmortem analysis of the
deals.
By Bill Cai
September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2022
